Sejmometr.pl – more on sessions calendar

In our last update on the work of Sejmometr.pl we have mentioned that Daniel Macyszyn was considering a calendar as a default view of Parliament sessions browser on the site. Well, it is implemented now, but in a different form than originally anticipated.

Sejmometr

“On the top, we have a not so big calendar with all day events, representing Sejm sessions (there are no single events). Users can select sessions they are interested in, by clicking them on the calendar. If no session is selected – Sejmometr will automatically select the latest (or almost the latest) session. Users can also change months and see related sessions, without overloading the whole site. This was done using AJAX technology.”

The original  idea proved to be overcomplicated and not entirely along the lines of Sejmometr overall priorities.

“Sejmometr is a projects-oriented portal (OK, bills-oriented would sound better, but it wouldn’t be strict – bills are only one of the legislative projects types). In future, it will be a projects-and-MPs-oriented, but for now – projects are a backbone of Sejmometr’s database structure. Practically, it means that legislative events (like legislative debates, speeches, reports) are always child elements of some projects and we always try to show these events from a perspective of their parent projects.”

You can find out more information about the reasons behind moving away from the original idea for this particular development on Sejmometr’s English blog. It would be also great if you could nagivate over and leave a comment for Daniel on the following points:

  • “Calendar programming:
    • loading data indicator
    • javascript data caching
  • Blank space in the top, right corner of the page. What to put there? Some stats? dedicated sessions search engine? tags cloud?”